Monday’s Meander Round the Garden

Posted on June 22, 2020 by craftycreeky

I spent all day Saturday working on the front garden, I’d been feeling a bit down for a couple of days, just fed up of the whole situation at the moment, coupled with being tired from my return to work. Anyway after a day in the garden I felt so much better – and the front garden looked better too! I weeded my worries away!

This area in front of the house is actually quite big, at a rough estimate I’d say 10′ – 15′ deep and 30′ long – it’s L-shaped. I’ve got a few nice shrubs but it is overrun with marestail in particular. I’ve been trying to clear it and dig it over for the last few months, digging out as much marestail root as I can. I’m aiming to clear as much as I can and then put a double layer of membrane down and some mulch, anything that comes through (and it will, marestail grows through tarmac!!) will be weed-killered. I’ll plant a few more shrubs and roses, trying to make it lower maintenance. I’ve a friend who’s a gardener, she came round last week and she’s agreed to do a morning in my garden this week, I’m hoping this will be a monthly occurrence! Just a little help to help me get on top of the garden.

I’m also hoping we’ll be able to thrash out a plan as I feel I need a path down the middle of the bed, mainly for access, but it does also reduce the planting area! I’ve a handful of ‘precious’ shrubs such as the purple and the gold cotinus and the magnolia tree to work round. I love the gold cotinus in particular, it’s grown to a lovely shape and it’s one you don’t often see. Other shrubs such as the spirea are easily replaceable, so if it’s in the way of the path it’s not the end of the world.

Anyway on Saturday I dug up all the shallow rooted weeds such as buttercup, pulled up annual weeds and just pulled up marestail stems. It will grow straight back but I couldn’t see the weeds for the marestail!!! This area to the left is much heavier clay too, though it’s much easier to work after the rain we’ve had.

My friend and I had a good catch up in the back garden, she had a wander round and I had to laugh at her reaction to my hosta bed – ‘What on earth have you been feeding those with!!’ One of them in particular is like verging on thigh height! I admitted I hadn’t fed them anything, they just seem happy there!

My foxtail lillies are starting to flower, they look great next to the self-seeded foxgloves, lots of spires! This is in the Amber & Amethyst garden.

There’s also lots of foxgloves around the obelisk too, you can also just see the astrantia, I think it’s called Hadspens Blood, it’s a lovely deep ruby red colour. The starry eyingium is starting to ‘flower’ too, I only put this in last year and I can’t remember how big it will be, but the ‘stars’ look pretty impresive so far! I’m pleased with the rose too, it’s a ramber and this year I spent an afternon tying the stems down, twisting them round the obelisk as the horizontal stems flower much better. It’s certainly the best year so far with blooms all the way down.

Our weather at the moment is very mixed, cold and wet one day, warm and sunny the next, so the poor plants keep putting blooms out only for them to be bashed by wind and rain. This is a gorgeous peony which is doing it’s best!

My roses are just starting to flower – they’re quite late as I was very late pruning them. This one is down by the arch on the patio, it’s mingling nicely with the geraniums and the astrantias, I think this one is Gentle Hermione…

In the same bed is this huge geranium, I think it’s Anne Folkard, it has lovely magenta flowers, it’s just getting rather big and it seems to have spread to the bed above! I’m undecided what to do with this one as it is getting rather large, but I also know it’s the worst soil of the garden, so I’m just pleased it’s happy. I keeping planning to dig over this bed, add loads of compost and start again…maybe I’ll just spread the compost and let the worms take it down!

Overall, if you don’t look too close at the weeds, the garden is looking pretty good, there’ll be a bit more colour once the roses start to flower properly. If I can just get on top of the perennial weeds it is actually quite low maintenance, as from late spring to early autumn, the beds are so densely planted I struggle to get on them. I just need to beat those weeds!!

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Bethlehem SAL

Posted on June 21, 2020 by craftycreeky

Last year I went on a workshop at Fabbadashery in Halifax, they hold some pretty good embroidery classes there. This one was by Deborah Mullins, I had been on one of her earlier courses and made a bookmark from a strip of Palestinian style embroidery…

Deborah spent three months in Israel and Palestine when her husband was on a sabbatical there. She chose to learn all she could about the different styles of embroidery there. Each area had a distinct style originally and Bethlehem embroidery was considered the best. The next workshop I attended of Deborah’s was called Bethlehem Embroidery, she was keen to point out it is inspired by and not a true representation of Bethlehem embroidery, especially as it’s on handmade felt, rather than dress fabric.

It was a one day workshop and Deborah taught us the various aspects of the embroidery, there wasn’t time to finish it, so by the time I left it was looking like this…

I’d learnt the chevron stitch, couched the central spiral of copper wire and couched a decorative thread next to it. I’d just started couching spirals of wire round the next border…and there I stopped until last night!!

The copper spirals are quite fiddly to do as you have to estimate how much wire you need, fold the end loop and then form the spiral in your fingers before stitching it down. The tricky bit is the estimating! Some of mine are bigger than others, some more widely spaced…it’s organic!!!

I’m just stitching the last spiral, so it looks like this now…

I now have to decide how to proceed. Bethlehem embroidery is traditionally done with lots of continuous couching patterns – the bookmark above is made with one thread going up each side of the central wiggle, forming the flowers, hearts and loops. I might do a bit of couching to accentuate the spirals but then use other stitches around it. I haven’t decided which thread to use either, as the thread used so far is like a thick perle, I have very little like that so I have to decide whether to order some, or use a finer thread, or change to DMC stranded cotton. ..decisions! If you follow the link to Deborah’s website you will find several examples – here work is stunning!

This SAL is orgainised by Avis from Stitching by the Sea, we share our progress on a project every three weeks, please follow the links to see what every one else has been creating.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen

Posted in embroidery, Stitch-a-long | Tagged , , , | 16 Comments

Cornflower Cross-Stitch

Posted on June 19, 2020 by craftycreeky

Last night I finished another page for my Anthea Calendar SAL book, this is the SAL by Faby Reilly, we get a new design each month of a seasonal flower. It can be stitched as one big picture with all twelve months on or as a dozen separate pictures…or it can be made into a book! I’m also stitching a wordplay page at the end of the month on what the month means to me and what I’ve been doing that month (I didn’t anticipate a lockdown when I thought of this plan!!)

Anyway, I’ve just finished June. It’s beautiful! It’s cornflowers, with their lovely intense blue. I did have a short delay as I didn’t have enough of one of the colours – typically any other shade I could have managed with a couple of lengths, but not the one I was short of – it is the main shade of blue, so I had to stitch as much as I could and then wait for the post.

There’s a lot of back-stitching this month to make the cornflower’s raggedy petals, in fact I think it’s probably the trickiest design so far – I really had to concentrate!

I love the way Faby incorporates different stitches into the designs, this month it’s spiders web stitch. I usually try to include different aspects of the design in the wordplay, so this month I’m thinking of one of the buds, some gold lines and stars, together with a couple of spiders webs as fillers, I’ll probably start it in a few days time..

We’re half way through this stitch-a-long, so here’s the first six months…

Don’t they look gorgeous 🙂

I’ll be linking up with Kathy’s Quilts on Sunday for Slow Stitching Sunday, so please follow the link for lots of stitching inspiration.

Posted in embroidery, Stitch-a-long, Textile Books | Tagged , , , | 19 Comments

Under the Sea

Posted on June 14, 2020 by craftycreeky

I decided to tackle another embroidery for the Travelling Sketchbook project from my Embroiderers Guild. These are A5 sketchbooks which are passed round and you stitch something on the chosen theme. The theme this time was ‘Under the Sea’, which I found much easier to be inspired by than the last one ( Rex quondam, Rexque futurus)

Initially I was thinking of a general deep sea scene, with fronds waving up and little fishes swimming along. I had a perusal on Pinterest for ideas and saw an embroidery of a jellyfish…

Jelly fish for me bring back memories of childhood holidays at my grandparents at Prestatyn in North Wales, I remember jelly fish the size of dinnerplates stranded on the beach, terrifying me in case I accidentally stood on one, even worse they would shimmy past when I was swimming in the (very cold!!) sea. However, if you look at photos of jellyfish on the computer, they are a thing of beauty with their central manubrium (that long stalk like frothy bit – it took me a while to discover that on google!!) and their tentacles floating round.

My starting point was a square of ‘stripy’ batik fabric in sea colours and a square of silvery organza. I cut a circle of the organza and made a running stitch round the edge to gather it in a little. I stitched the bottom half of it to the background fabric and added a couple of lengths of organza, twisted around gently and inserted into the circle to make the manubrium.

Jelly fish in the making

I was looking through my thread stash when I found one of those mixed packed of threads I get tempted by at shows. It was silvery blue/grey, perfect. My initial idea was to individually stitch threads into the main body, however and realised it would be just as effective (and a lot quicker) to cut a length off through the whole wadge of threads, fold it in half, and stitch the whole lot into the body at once! I wrapped the folded bit with a length of the organza to add a bit more body to the jellyfish.

It worked brilliantly! Well I’m pleased with it anyway! I stitched the top half of the body down gently with some silver thread. I tried adding a few twinkly beads to the tentacles but they were just lost, I stitched a couple of rows of feather stitch in silver lame thread, just as a way of anchoring the tentacles a bit, I didn’t do much as I felt it was flattening the 3D effect.

Tentacles in place

In the end I decided it was finished, I trimmed the edge, allowing some of the tentacles to drift off the fabric, trying not to catch them in when I was blanket-stitching round the edge. With hindsight I should have interfaced the batik before I started, particularly as it’s a lighter weight one, instead I used 505 spray adhesive to lightly attach a square of calico before stitching the two layers together round the edge.

A jelly fish!

I think it just shows how a fairly simple idea can actually be quite effective. The next (and last in this series) travelling sketchbook is on leaves, another theme that I’m looking forward to creating.

I’ll be linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday, please follow the link for lots of hand-stitched inspiration.

Posted in embroidery, Serendipity, The Travelling Sketchbook | Tagged , , , | 17 Comments

Sewing Weekender

Posted on June 13, 2020 by craftycreeky

Just a quick post as after a couple of tiring days back at work I’m looking forward to a weekend of sewing. To make it extra special, it’s Sewing Weekender time!

The Sewing Weekender is usually a weekend away in Cambridge for 100 sewers, lots of talks, sewing and socialising, it sounds great fun. This year due to Covid, it’s gone on line, so lots of people from all over the world can join in. It’s still not too late to join, there’s lots of talks to watch, a great goodie bag, and you can sit and sew with the camaraderie of a sewing event.

I’m starting a sheer shirt, which as on my list of things to do this year. It a gorgeous fabric which is why it’s been in my stash for ages, it’s one of those too scared to cut into fabrics!

In reality it’s a deeper wine colour, it’s beautiful. I think I bought it on one of my earlier trips to Deswbury.

I’ve chosen a Style Arc pattern called the Artist Tunic, which is a longer length shirt, I chose it as it is actually pictured with a sheer fabric. I’ve not used Style Arc much, instructions seem minimalist to say the least, so it’s fingers crossed time that everything works out…

…wish me luck I’m going in!!!

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June Smalls are Buzzing!

Posted on June 10, 2020 by craftycreeky

Where has this month gone, we’re a third of the way through already! So, here’s my cross-stitch smalls for the month…

The Joyful World SAL one for June has a very cute bear with a bee hive. That gave me a bit of a theme, so anything with bees came out, then butterflies to bunce it up a bit.

June; Joyful World SAL

I’ve stitched the bumble bee one a couple of times now, I made the first one for my mum as she used to keep bees, I liked it so much I stitched myself one as well…

The square bee pincushion is from Le Jardin Prive, I stitched it back in 2015!

The lavender pot with bees buzzing round is by Lesley Tear, she kindly has it as a freebie on her website.

The two butterflies with lavender are both Faby Reilly designs, Again I made them for my mum for Mothers Day one year, I think the fob went round a padded coat-hanger.

Faby Reilly Design

The forget-me-nots are just about still in flower, so I included a little cross-stitch I stitched years ago, like when I was in my 20’s, together with a tiny box which is a Nutmeg Designs kit, I think it’s officially periwinkle, but it’ll pretend to be forget-me-nots!

  • Forget-me-not cross-stitch

The final one popped in of a bee is again one I made years ago for my mum, it was actually some voile I saw in a shop up I think in Pickering(we’re talking probably 20 years ago!!) I fussy-cut them and made a cushion, but I also made this little hanging one to go on a coathanger.

So I’ve ended up with quite a collection of bees! In case you’re wondering, our bumble bee nest under the eaves appears to be quieting off a bit, so hopefully my belief that the nest will be gone before the workmen arrive will come to fruition!

Posted in embroidery, Smalls of the Month | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Vintage Quilt SAL

Posted on June 7, 2020 by craftycreeky

A couple of years ago my daughter was helping clear her other grandmothers house when she came across an unfinished old patchwork quilt stuffed inside a trunk. She brought it home for me to look at and asked me to finish it, thinking her grandmother had probably started it.

The more I looked at it the older I felt it was. It’s English paper piecing and many of the papers are still in the back, some of them are gorgeous, a glimpse into history. It looks like an old handwriting exercise book has been used, some letters, newspapers, I scanned them for dates to give me a clue who made it.

Whilst I couldn’t see a printing date on a newspaper, the events they were referring to were in the 1870’s. This means we need to look at least three if not four generations further back. I decided I needed some advice!!

I took it to my Embroiderers Guild where one of our members has worked in the textile department of a nearby museum. She felt the fabrics were scraps from a dressmaker, as they didn’t feel worn, like they still had some size in them. She felt my dating was about right, but also felt some of the fabrics were much earlier, like the 1750’s!!! By now I was beginning to wonder whether or not I should touch it!! She gave me contact details for the textile curator at the museum.

I had a long e-mail discussion with the curator, she was very helpful. She encouraged me to finish it, but to make a book detailing what I’ve done. So that’s my project for the next little while…

There’s one big piece and then several bits. The main piece measures 60″ by about 75″, my thought at the moment is to add one more strip. If I want to add more then I would have to find a light fabric that worked as there aren’t anymore light diamonds. Whenever I tried various shades of neutral fabric they just looked too new.

I’m hoping to quilt it on my vintage singer sewing machine. It’s a hand-crank from the 1870’s, so it feels right to use it, I don’t fancy hand-quilting it as, apart from it’s size, the fabric doesn’t feel like it would be easy to sew.

I’m hoping to be able to piece some of the backing papers together to maybe find out who made it, or at least a more accurate date, maybe a suggestion of a place, see if we can discover a bit of the history.

Hopefully in three weeks time when I next share this I’ll have pieced a few together.

Hand Quilt Along Links

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Tracy, Deb, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, Gretchen, Kathi,  Bella, Daisy, Connie, Monica and Sherrie

I’ll also be linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday, please follow the link for more hand-sewing inspiration.

Posted in Quilt-a-long, Quilting | Tagged , , | 26 Comments

Tie-dye and Darning Time

Posted on June 6, 2020 by craftycreeky

A few months ago I fell for a length of fabric on a de-stash facebook page. With hindsight I can probably see why it was being moved on. It’s lovely fabric and a bit different, but difficult to know what to stitch and the more you look at it the more flaws you see…

It’s an indigo tie-dye cotton, I haven’t washed it yet and I think I’ll put some colour catchers in too as I’m not totally convinced how fast some of the darker patches are! What makes it interesting is that it then has rows of lace and waves of ribbon stitched along it, it looks like it has been over-dyed once these were stitched on. There are areas where the stitching could have been more accurate, missing loops of ribbon etc, I was also intrigued that they used a stretch lace – I discovered that as I briefly thought it might be nice to cut away fabric behind a row of lace, I abandoned that idea!

Having looked at the fabric, I decided when it came to patterns, the simpler the better. I decided on a basic gathered skirt with buttons down the front. I played with the stripes up and down or across, I liked them across and also felt it avoided the lace and ruffled ribbon bits in a waistband which could be bulky. Stitching it across also meant I didn’t have to have any seams in the skirt!

Having determined I didn’t have enough for a top as well I cut it so I had a wide area without lace or ribbon at the top and bottom so make hemmimg and waistband insertion easier. I also cut a waistband from a flat area.

It actually stitched very easily – to my surprise the stripes across were pretty even. I didn’t fancy stitching buttonholes over the lace or the ribbon so I positioned them slightly unevenly but on a flat area. Buttons aren’t a brilliant match, but they were the nearest I had in my stash. I’ll probably replace them when the shops re-open.

I was just stitching my buttonholes when I noticed a cut in the fabric, it was about an inch long, hidden in a narrow crease. Of course it would be right at the front on the buttonhole placket! I decided to be creative and do some visible darning!! Even though I didn’t set out to make it invisible, it actually blends in pretty well!

It’s a sort of comfortable every day skirt, easy to wear, I’m just not sure how well the fabric will hold up to everyday wear. I will just enjoy it while it lasts!

I managed to nip outside for a photoshoot in between hailstorms and downpours…

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Patriotic Blocks

Posted on June 5, 2020 by craftycreeky

I’m taking part in Foot Square Freestyle this year which Kate Chiconi organises. We make three 12″ blocks a month, each person in the group is allocated a month and we make the blocks in their choice of colours. Usually they are posted out within the month, however at the moment we are holding them until it’s safe to post.

I’m enjoying trying different blocks each month. I’ve used my big patchwork block book again, I have a love hate relationship with it as it does have 365 designs, which is pretty useful. However I really don’t like her instructions, so I just look at the diagram and work it out!

In May we were making the blocks for Susan, she’s chosen red, white and blue. I looked in my stash and realised I didn’t have much true red and blue, so I ordered some Lewis and Irene fabric from their Thumbleberry range. I did have a bit of a panic when it took nearly three weeks to arrive!

My first block is called Faceted Diamond. I’m pretty pleased with how this went together.

Next up was ‘A Row of Geese’….

My final block is called watermill, I do like making pinwheels!

I must admit I was really happy with how these came out. I’ve not done much with a limited colour scheme and strong colours too, but they turned out really crisp and striking. They certainly suit the simpler blocks.

Do follow the link at the beginning to see everyone else blocks.

I need to start making this months now, then hopefully I won’t be last one in again! This time we’re making them for Monike in indigo, gold and hot pink.

Posted in F2F, Quilt-a-long, Quilting | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Words for May

Posted on June 4, 2020 by craftycreeky

Last night I finished stitching the wordplay for my Anthea Calendar textile book. This is the SAL by Faby Reilly which gives us a very pretty flower design each month. I’m making mine into a book and making a wordplay to face each page with basically what that month means to me.

I stitched May earlier in the month, it’s very pretty…

I usually wait until nearer the end of the month before I design my wordplay, it sometimes takes that long to think of words to stitch.

We have a birthday in May, we were meant to have a wedding too but that has sadly been postponed for a year. I checked my diary (rather empty at the moment!) but I remembered sitting outside for Dawn Chorus day, listening to the birdsong in the garden…

We also had a socially distanced street party for VE Day, it’s 75 years since VE Day and there were meant to be lots of commemorations planned, but obviously everything got cancelled. Instead it was suggested that we stood by our front doors for a two minute silence at 11am, it was actually quite moving, just stood alone with my thoughts. We then had an afternoon tea with everyone at the bottom of their drive. We wandered round, chatting to neighbours, kept our distance, but had a lovely afternoon. I was a bit short of supplies for an afternoon tea, so I defrosted some puff pastry and made some sausage rolls. I had a large rectangle of pastry left, I looked in the cupboard and found an old jar of mincemeat, I spread it on the pastry, rolled it up and sliced it, it came out a bit like a Danish pastry! A few home made fairy cakes and cheese on toast slices and we were sorted! I set a pretty table with a vintage embroidered cloth, a tiered cake plate and a beaded net fly cover which was my grandmothers. The Australian flag made my OH very happy when he came home from work to join in.

I was a bit stuck trying to think of some suitable poem or prose to stitch for May, I couldn’t think of a month specific one I wanted to stitch. I then remembered a French poem I’m rather partial to. It’s all about true friendship, as I’ve used my time at home to chat to distant friends, I decided this was rather apt. The full poem is as follows;

L’amitie vrai c’est comme la mer, elle s’en va, elle s’en rentre, mais elle est toujours la.

Apologies to the French speakers amongst you, I never have worked out how to put the acccent over the e on a computer!! Anyway, it translates roughly as ‘True friendship is like the sea, it goes away and comes back, but it’s always there.’ I only had room for the first half, one day I shall stitch it all on an embroidery.

In Otley we still have a Maypole, usually around Mayday, the local primary schools set it up and dance round the Maypole, I have happy memories of watching Helen in a pretty dress, skipping round holding her ribbon.

Hanami is the lovely Japanese tradition of visiting the cherry trees in blossom. I’ve added sewing and gardening at the bottom as that is pretty much what I did for a month!! Flower of the month had to be the beautiful bearded irises.

We have blackbirds visit the garden regularly. One of them sits on the tree opposite my sewing room on an evening and sings his heart out, it’s beautiful. We’ve also really enjoyed seeing the fledglings being brought into the garden for feeding. The robins were first, today the blue tit family came to visit.

June’s design has just arrived, it’s lovely, full of very pretty cornflowers.

Posted in embroidery, Stitch-a-long, Textile Books | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments